If you are camping on BLM land in Utah right now, you cannot have a fire. Not a campfire, not a charcoal grill, not a smoking cigarette outside your vehicle. Stage 2 fire restrictions went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on June 26, 2026, and cover every acre of BLM-managed public land in the state.
The order came from a June 24 BLM Utah announcement, verified today. It applies statewide. The Canyon Country District (Moab and the San Juan country), Color Country (Cedar City down to Kanab), Green River (San Rafael Swell), Paria River, and West Desert are all under it, and the BLM Utah fire restrictions page lists the district orders as they get posted. There is no end date. The order stands until rescinded.
What is prohibited
The Stage 2 order names four things:
- All open fires of any kind. Wood, charcoal, briquette. Campfires in a fire ring are out. Charcoal grills are out.
- Smoking except inside a vehicle or an enclosed area. Outside those, smoking is prohibited.
- Grinding, cutting, or welding metal in an area with dry vegetation.
- Operating an internal combustion engine without a properly installed and functioning spark arrester. That means your chainsaw, generator, and off-road bike need the arrester, and it needs to work.
A separate year-round Utah order, UT914-25-001, adds the usual bans on fireworks, exploding targets, and incendiary or tracer ammunition. Those are always prohibited on BLM Utah land, Stage 2 or not.
What is not in the order
The June 24 statewide announcement does not exempt propane or gas stoves. That is worth noting, because other western BLM offices commonly do. The Grand Junction Field Office order, also effective June 24, exempts “devices using pressurized liquid, jellied petroleum, or gas.” Utah’s statewide language does not carry that clause on the announcement page. District-level orders may add it. Read the order for the specific district you are in, and if a posted sign contradicts what is on a website, the sign wins.
Camping itself is not restricted. The 14-day stay rule at any BLM campsite still applies, and dispersed camping is still allowed anywhere it was allowed before, unless a separate closure order has come down for a specific area.
What to do this week
If you are on a Utah trip: cook on a canister stove or a two-burner propane if the local order allows it, skip the fire, keep smoking inside the truck, and check the district page for the unit you are camping in before you go. Utah Fire Info (utahfireinfo.gov) is the shared statewide dashboard, but the BLM order itself is on blm.gov and is what you will be cited under.
If you are planning a fall Utah trip, file this away. Stage 2 restrictions here typically hold until the weather turns, which in southern Utah is often late September or October. For the ground-level camping rules that do not change with fire season, the Utah free camping page is the map. For fire-restriction reading in general, our July 2026 fire summary links every western agency’s live restriction page.